Liverpool-based five-piece Sound Of Guns are a new band who are enjoying a bit of a flurry at the moment – their Myspace page carries kind words from several Radio 1 luminaries (Zane Lowe and Steve Lamacq are both fans), and they’ve even been on Soccer AM. If only for these reasons, they have to be worth checking out – despite the fact that their name makes them sound like something scaly and metallic that should have been buried years ago.

Fortunately, aside from a few forgiveable bursts of drum-delivered gunfire, the band sound nothing like their name. Instead, their debut EP features four tracks of immediate, well delivered rock – likeable at first listen and multi-layered enough not to get boring too quickly.

The title track, Elementary Of Youth, sets the scene nicely, showcasing a convincingly decent rock voice, lots of nice, reverby guitars, moody, portentous dynamics and move-you-along rhythms. Dead Sea Scrolls follows, and for a weird moment you might suddenly be reminded of Lady Gaga. The resemblance is, fortunately, superficial, but the song does show a more pop-orientated side to the band that’s rather intriguing.

Back to Route 1 rock with the third track, Lightspeed, another richly woven tapestry of echoey guitars and vocals, and then it’s on to the dramatic closer, Gallantry, with its ghostly chorus and some lovely violin sounds interwoven with the upliftingly good guitar work. Then, finally, there’s a ‘secret’ track, which opens with a Manic Street Preachers-style distorted speech motif and moves on to a sweet, acoustic fragment of song. This makes for an interesting contrast with the band’s big, dramatic core sound as well as hinting at future possibilities.

Worth a listen, then, but as you do, you’re sure to be reminded of lots of other classic rock that’s gone before. The Manics, U2, Muse, Led Zeppelin and dozens of other icons you already know and love might all spring to your mind, but it’s rather harder to find much that really represents Sound Of Guns themselves. This sound, while big on ambition, has little to offer in terms of originality.

Part of the reason for this is that, while this material would undoubtedly make a great soundtrack to anyone’s Friday night, it’s not quite memorable enough – musically limited and lyrically uncompelling. If the band are really going to start filling the stadiums they so obviously want to, they’ll have to address this.